...so don't you get worried at all. (A weblog of music and otrogenerica)

Wednesday, 6 January 2010

#1: Buddy Peace — "Late Model Sedan" (Strange Famous, 2009)

Nick Budd loves American stuff. The 28-year-old Londoner's obsession with the States began with him listening to rap on a jenky radio, and his fixation soon broadened to include "the music, the films, the landscapes, the people – everything. And the cars... wood paneled sedans, Chevys, Buicks, Cadillacs, the whole deal." After serving as resident DJ for Lex Records, supplying live backing for Organised Konfusion’s Prince Po and continually honing his themed mixtapes, Budd joined up with Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records label. On Late Model Sedan, his first full-length for SFR, Nick (or Buddy Peace to the world at large) meticulously weaves fragments of his beloved Americana into an elaborate sonic tapestry (I want to say "an American quilt", but... oh wait.)

If you listened without knowing differently, you could easily assume the composer was American himself, but it's his outsider-looking-in status that affords Buddy such a compelling vantage point. Using turntables alongside intricate MPC micro-edits, he collages snippets of speech like overheard conversations over finely-cut beats, instrumental drones, and found-sound audio vérité into a forward-looking whole...